Joint body to review rules on early release
THE DEPARTMENT of Justice (DoJ) and Department of the Interior and Local Government have created a committee that will review the rules on parole.
The body will submit a report and draft the revised rules within 10 days, according to a joint department order issues on Thursday.
The processing of inmates for parole have been suspended pending the review, according to the order.
Philippine authorities earlier said they would suspend the parole program pending a review of the guidelines.
This comes amid an uproar over a plan to free former Calauan Mayor Antonio L. Sanchez, a convicted rapist and murderer, for what prison officials earlier described as good conduct.
The Justice department has created a task force that will review the rules and will inform the Supreme Court about the suspension, Mr. Guevarra said in a text message.
Several senators, including Senator Franklin M. Drilon opposed the plan and said they would investigate it. Mr. Drilon was the Justice secretary who prosecuted Mr. Sanchez, who was sentenced in 1995 to seven life terms for the rape and murder of two University of the Philippines students in 1993.
Presidential spokesman Salvador S. Panelo on Friday said the ex-mayor was ineligible for an early release because he committed a heinous crime. The spokesman, who lawyered for the ex-mayor in the 1993 rape-slay case, earlier denied that he had anything to do with his planned release.
Mr. Guevarra on Thursday said the Bureau of Corrections would evaluate the qualifications of Mr. Sanchez. Last week, he said the convict along with thousands of other inmates would be released for good conduct. Their release, he added, could not be appealed.
The Supreme Court in June ruled that the law should be applied retroactively because it favors the accused.
Data from the Bureau of Corrections released yesterday showed that since 2013, 1,914 out of the 22,049 inmates released for good conduct were convicted of heinous crimes.
“We have to study and discuss that issue very carefully and thoroughly” Mr. Guevarra said in a text message yesterday.
He said a 2015 department order had affirmed BuCor’s authority to approve the release of inmates with expired sentences but still required the approval of the Justice chief for convicts sentenced to life in jail. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas
